Foxglove poisoning: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia Amount swallowed Poison Control Your local poison center can be reached directly by calling the national toll-free Poison Help hotline (1-800-222-1222) from anywhere in the United States. This hotline number will let you talk to experts in poisoning. They will give you further instructions. This is a free and confidential service. All local poison control centers in the United States use this national number. You should call if you have any questions about poisoning or poison prevention. It does not need to be an emergency. You can call for any reason, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What to Expect at the Emergency Room The provider will measure and monitor person's vital signs, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Symptoms will be treated as appropriate. The person may receive: Activated charcoal Medicines to treat symptoms, possibly including an antidote to help reverse the effects of the poison Tube through the mouth into the stomach to wash out the stomach ( gastric lavage ) Outlook (Prognosis) How well you do depends on the amount of poison swallowed and how quickly treatment is received.

The faster you get medical help, the better the chance for recovery. Symptoms last for 1 to 3 days and may require a hospital stay. Death is unlikely. DO NOT touch or eat any plant with which you are not familiar. Wash your hands after working in the garden or walking in the woods. Alternative Names Willow-leaved foxglove poisoning; Revebjelle poisoning Images Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) References Graeme KA. Toxic plant ingestions. In: Auerbach PS, ed. Wilderness Medicine. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Mosby; 2012:chap 64. Review Date 11/4/2015 Updated by: Jesse Borke, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, Attending Physician at FDR Medical Services/Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Buffalo, NY. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. Related MedlinePlus Health Topics Foxglove Foxglove Digitalis The tall spires of a stand of foxglove, rising up in the garden in early summer, is a sight to behold.

Most are biennials, that is, they need two years to bloom and then die in the fall. But if you can get a stand going, they'll reseed so prolifically it will seem they're perennials. To be successful with foxgloves, they must have rich, moist, well-drained soil and light shade, especially in the afternoon. (They'll do fine in full sun in the northern third of the country.) These tall plants also need to be out of any wind. Plants may rebloom if deadheaded after the first flush of bloom. Oops, we're sorry. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Oops, we're sorry. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Share your take on this idea! Upload your photo here. From 1 to 8 feet Width: more varieties for Foxglove Common foxglove Digitalis purpurea is a short-lived self-sowing perennial or biennial. They are a mainstay in cottage gardens.

Zones 5-8 'Foxy' foxglove Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy' blooms reliably from seed its first year with 2- to 3-foot-tall spikes of pink, purple, white, or cream with maroon markings. Zones 5-8 Strawberry foxglove Digitalis x mertonensis bears strawberry-red bloom spikes up to 3 feet tall. Divide plants every two to three years to maintain vigor. Zones 4-8 Woolly foxglove Digitalis lanata is an Eastern European native that grows 1-2 feet tall and bears bicolor white and brown flowers in June and July. Zones 4-9 plant Foxglove with Lady's mantle Lady's mantle looks great in the garden and in a vase. Its scalloped leaves catch rain or drewdrops, making them look dusted with jewels. The chartreuse flowers appear in playful, frothy clusters above the foliage. Lady's mantle is ideal for softening the edge of a shaded path or creating a groundcover in dappled shade. Hosta This plant hardly grown 40 years ago is now one of the most commonly grown garden plants.

But hosta has earned its spot in the hearts of gardeners -- it's among the easiest plants to grow, as long as you have some shade and ample rainfall.Hostas vary from tiny plants suitable for troughs or rock gardens to massive 4-foot clumps with heart-shape leaves almost 2 feet long that can be puckered, wavy-edged, white or green variegated, blue-gray, chartreuse, emerald-edged -- the variations are virtually endless. Hostas in new sizes and touting new foliage features seem to appear each year. This tough, shade-loving perennial, also known as plaintain lily, blooms with white or purplish lavender funnel-shape or flared flowers in summer. Some are intensely fragrant. Hostas are a favorite of slug and deer. Flower display page: Digitalis. No results available at mo. BlueWisteria.co.uk for down to earth gardening information. Flower Display Page: Digitalis. New Search Family description Digitalis. Digitalis, better known as the Foxglove, is an old favourite cottage garden plant normally grown as a biennial, although some plants will survive for several summers.

A basal rosette of leaves eventually produces a flower spike that reaches 1.5 metres high. These flower spikes rarely stand up under their own weight and the plants are best planted or allowed to grow amongst smaller plants that can offer support. General care. When flowering commences, any unsupported stems will benefit from a cane or other suitable support. Allow one or two flower spikes to remain after flowering has finished, to provide seeds for successive years. The remainder should be removed once the last flowers are fading. In the spring, any healthy seedlings should be dug up and transplanted to the best positions where they can continue to grow without further intervention. Any other seedlings should be hoed out like weeds. Notes on Toxicity or Culinary usage. While this plant has proven medical benefits it should be noted that there is little difference between the beneficial dose and a fatal dose. Leave it alone. Sales Items for sale listed below. Species description. Digitalis purpurea. The common foxglove as seen in a typical English cottage garden. Display characteristics for Digitalis purpurea. Flower colours and blooming period.

Bloom Foxglove Foxglove Purple Foxglove Witch's Bells The herbal plant known as the foxglove can reach six feet in height. The foxglove has a straight stem without branches and grows as a biennial plant. During the spring bloom, foxglove flowers hang in bunches on the stem - the flowers have a dull pink or purple coloration, and often come with white spots on the corolla. The large sized leaves of the foxglove possess distinct and prominent veins running along the lamina. Among all the traditional medicinal plants of old, the foxglove is considered to be among the loveliest, the most significant, the best known and even the most lethal. The plant poison called digitalis is simply the powdered down dried leaves of the foxglove plant. Digitalis is a well known cardiac stimulating compound that has helped millions of heart patients stay alive due to its property of stimulating the cardiac muscles. The properties and beneficial effects of digitalis were discovered by an English physician William Withering, in 1775.

In his research on herbal medications, he came to know of an old woman in Shropshire who was a practitioner of folk medicine mainly using wild herbs that she gathered in the countryside and the woods. This traditional healer cured a patient of the physician afflicted with excessive fluid retention as a complication of congestive heart failure . William Withering had in fact, expected the patient to die and was surprised by the curative powers of the remedy used by the old healer. Withering identified the foxglove as the curative herb from the old woman's mostly useless bag of weeds. The physician found that foxglove was capable of treating the swelling or edema , which accompanies congestive heart failure in a person. Withering would also find the poisonous nature of the foxglove herb and the real ability of the digitalis in the herb to completely stop the pulsation of the human heart, even while it was also capable of shocking the heart into contraction. The physician would spend a decade conducting precise experiments on the use of the herb to determine the proper dosage for this new herbal remedy.

Withering would publish a paper on the properties of the foxglove herb in 1785, the record of his findings is considered a classic of medical literature and was referred by many physicians in his day. The shape of the blossoms give the herb its name , as the glove shaped flowers resembled gloved fingers and the name foxglove is an allusion to the white paws of the common red fox. Parts used Leaf. Uses There are other common names for the foxglove plant and the medicinal plant is called by different names in different places. The name "dead mans thimbles" is used to refer to the foxglove in Ireland; this name is a reference to the secretion of harmful juice from the herb. In England, the name ï¿½folks glove" for the foxglove, is an allusion to the traditional belief in fairy folk, who were said to inhabit woody areas where the foxglove is a common sight. Foxgloves have distinct spots on the flowers, these spots were traditionally said to mark the places where woodland elves had placed their fingers, as a warning of the plant's poisonous nature.

The name ï¿½Revbieldeï¿½ or "fox bell" is given to the plant in Norway, this name springs from the Norwegian legend about bad fairies who supposedly gave this plant to a fox so as to enable the animal to quiet its footsteps while it was hunting among the chicken roosts in villages. The leaves of the foxglove were traditional used by people living in North Wales to give the stone floors in their houses a mosaic look. The foxglove was originally used by the Irish as healing herb in the folk medicine of Ireland to treat skin problems such as boils and ulcers , as well as headaches and paralysis. The main chemical compound found in the foxglove plant is a glycoside called digitoxin; this chemical compound has been chemically isolated in the laboratory and is now artificially synthesized as well. The compound is employed as a major medication, called digitalis, used in the treatment of congestive heart failure and to right congenital heart defects in patients. The contraction of cardiac muscles is strengthened and boosted by the digitoxin; the compound also slows the pulsation rate of the human heart.

Foxglove also contains one more important glycoside called digoxin; this compound has a diuretic effect on the kidneys and is used in some medications. The reason for the traditional fear of the foxglove herb is that any of the chemicals found in the plant are extremely dangerous when ingested in high doses by humans or animals. The compounds in the herb can induce cardiac rhythm disorders, sudden depression , heart failure or asphyxiation if they are ingested in large quantities. A diseased human heart is profoundly benefited by the tonic effect of the foxglove remedy. The disruption of normal circulation in the body is the main reason for the worsening of heart disease in the human body. The rate of heart beat and contraction is boosted and strengthened by the cardiac glycosides in the foxglove, as a result of this tonic effect, the heart beats slowly, regularly and without demanding more oxygen than the circulation can provide at any one time. The compounds present in the foxglove also stimulate the production of urine in the kidneys, this effect also leads to the lowering in the total volume of blood in circulation, and this brings a reduction in the load on the heart muscles.

Other medical uses Homeopathy Habitat and cultivation While the foxglove has been mainly identified as a native English plant and associated with English countryside, it is found growing in many places throughout Europe and in the North American woods. The foxglove is a very easy to grow in most garden soils , particularly if such soils are rich in the content of organic matter and humus. The foxglove grows best in light dry soils in sites with a semi-shade; however, the plant can also succeeds very well in sites with full exposure to the sunlight if the soil at the site is also moist or wet. The foxglove herb is also adapted to acidic soils and grows well in such soils. The plant also tolerates cold temperatures and is quite hardy, capable of tolerating temperate up to -25ï¿½c during the winter months. Temperate woodlands are easily colonized by the foxglove especially if such sites are shaded to some extent. The foxglove is an ornamental plant and a favorite of many gardeners around the world. The main reason for the commercial cultivation of the foxglove is for the useful glycosides it contains, these chemical compounds form the basis for the important heart medicine called digitalis.

Herbalists also commonly use this species in the preparation of herbal heart remedies, the sub-species called D. lanata on the other hand is commercially grown for supplying the pharmaceutical industry with natural digitoxin. Foxglove plants grown at sites with good daily exposure to incumbent sunlight typically contain greater concentrations of the beneficial and medically active compounds - therefore site selection is important when commercially cultivating foxglove plants. Apiarists also favor the foxglove as bees are attracted to its flowers due to their high nectar content. Each individual foxglove plant can give to two million seeds in its lifetime. Browsing animals such as deer and rabbits almost never trouble the members of this plant genus - due to the fact that most of them are poisonous. The foxglove grows well in mixed woods and is a good companion plant for other trees and shrubs growing on a site. The foxglove stimulates the growth of neighboring plants and trees, especially growing well among pine trees in temperate woodlands. The foxglove herb is normally propagated using stored seeds. The seeds are surface sown early in the spring on a cold frame inside a greenhouse. Foxglove seeds typically take two to four weeks at 20ï¿½C to germinate.

Once the seedlings emerge and plants begin to grow and become large enough to handle by hand, each individual seedling is pricked out into its own pot and these pots are then plant out in the permanent sites for the plants when summer arrives the following year. When the supply of seeds is sufficient, they can be sown out of doors at the permanent site during the spring or the fall - this practice is advisable only if seed stocks are abundant as the mortality rate of such seedlings planted directly out of doors tends to be rather high compared to seedlings grown indoors. Constituents Foxglove contains cardiac glycosides (including digoxin; digitoxin, and lanatosides), anthraquinones , flavonoids , and saponins . Digitoxin rapidly strengthens the heartbeat but is excreted very slowly. Digoxin is preferred as a long-term medication. Digitalis Uses, Benefits & Dosage - Drugs.com Herbal Database Adverse reactions are generally related to toxicity. Toxicology All parts of the plant are toxic. The incidence of digitalis toxicity in therapeutic use has been estimated to range from 5% to 25%.

Ingestion of extremely small amounts of the plant may be fatal to humans, especially children, and to animals. Toxicity is cumulative. Botany Digitalis is typically a biennial plant but may be annual or perennial depending on the species. It is characterized by a thick, cylindrical, downy stem that reaches a height of up to 2 m. Leaves form a thick rosette during the first year of growth. The leaves, which are woolly, veined, and covered with white hairs on the underside, have a very bitter taste. Flowers grow in the first or second year, depending on the species, and are tubular and bell-shaped, growing to 8 cm in length. Many colors of flowers have been bred from digitalis, and they are rarely white. Digitalis is native to the British Isles, western Europe, and parts of Africa, but is found today as an ornamental plant throughout the world. Related species that have found some use in traditional medicine include Digitalis lutea (straw foxglove), Digitalis grandiflora and Digitalis ambigua (yellow foxglove), and Digitalis ferriginea (rusty foxglove).

1 , 2 , 3 History Digitalis was one of the many herbal remedies used by the ancient Romans. Although its use for the treatment of heart failure has been traced back to 10th century Europe, digitalis was not widely used for this indication until its scientific investigation by British physician William Withering in the late 1700s. For most of the 1800s, digitalis was used to treat a wide variety of diseases and disorders. In 1875, German chemist Oswald Schmiedeberg first isolated pure digitoxin from digitalis, leading others to extract and identify other glycosides from various species of digitalis. In 1957, digoxin was isolated from D. lanata and is now a major cardiac glycoside marketed in tablet form. Digitalis was admitted into the first edition of the Pharmacopeia of the United States (1820) and is currently recognized by all major pharmacopeias. In South America, preparations of the powdered leaves are used to relieve asthma, as sedatives, and as diuretic/cardiotonics.

In India, an ointment containing digitalis glycosides is used to treat wounds and burns. 2 , 4 , 5 Chemistry Ornamental strains of D. purpurea typically have low concentrations of active compounds. Leaves of wild varieties that have been used for medicinal purposes contain at least 30 different glycosides in total quantities ranging from 0.1% to 0.6%; these consist primarily of purpurea glycoside A (yielding digitoxin) and glycoside B, the precursor of gitoxin. Upon hydrolysis, digitoxin and gitoxin lose sugar moieties, producing their respective aglycones, digitoxigenin and gitoxigenin. Biosynthetic pathways in the production of cardenolides are reliant on the enzymes of malonyltransferase and progesterone 5 beta-reductase. The main glycosides of D. lanata are the lanatosides, designated A through E. Removal of acetate groups and sugars results in formation of digitoxin, gitoxin, digoxin, digitalin, and gitaloxin. D.

lanata is not typically used in powder form in the United States, but serves as a major source of lanatoside C and digoxin (300 times more potent than the powder prepared from D. purpurea ). Isolated digitoxin is 1,000 times more potent than whole powdered leaves and is completely and rapidly absorbed from the GI tract. The seeds also contain digitalis glycosides, while steroidal saponins, flavones, the flavonoid chrysoeriol, anthraquinones, and organic acids have been identified in the leaves. High performance liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy have been used to identify and quantify glycoside composition. 2 , 3 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 Uses and Pharmacology Cardiovascular effects Cardiac glycosides possess positive inotropic effects due to inhibition of sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase, which allows calcium to accumulate in myocytes leading to enhanced cardiac contractility. These drugs also possess some antiarrhythmic activity, but will induce arrhythmias at higher dose levels.

7 , 12 , 13 Animal data Studies in animals center largely on evaluations of individual chemical compounds on isolated cardiac and other tissues. 12 , 13 , 14 Clinical data Digitalis glycosides have been used clinically for the treatment of heart failure for more than 200 years and remain the source of commercial digoxin preparations; however, a defined place in therapy remains under debate. Reviews of the large, multicenter Digitalis Investigation Group trial and other clinical trials have found no clear effect of digitalis on mortality in heart failure. Some effect has been demonstrated for secondary outcomes of decreased hospitalizations and clinical (symptomatic) deterioration. 5 , 15 For further information, consult standard pharmacology references. Other effects Cancer In vitro experiments and screening studies have shown cytotoxic properties of glycosides and flavonoids from D. purpurea and D. lantana . Activity against human cancer cell lines, including solid tumor lines, has been demonstrated. Mechanisms include direct cytotoxicity resulting in apoptosis, inhibition of aflatoxin-induced cytotoxicity, inhibition of induction of nitric oxide synthase, and increases in glutathione S-tranferase.

11 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 Diabetes A study in hyperglycemic and dyslipidemic rats demonstrated enhanced glucose tolerance 2 hours after the rats were given a single dose of the saponin digitonin. Positive effects on the lipid profile were also observed. 20 Dosage Digitalis leaf has a narrow therapeutic index, requiring close medical supervision for safe use. Traditional dosage starts at 1.5 g of leaf divided into 2 daily doses. Purified digoxin is typically used at daily doses of 0.125 to 0.25 mg. 15 , 21 Pregnancy/Lactation Adverse reactions are generally related to toxicity. Toxicology All parts of the plant are toxic. Animal toxicity occurs during grazing. Children have become ill by sucking the flowers or ingesting seeds or parts of the leaves. Deaths have been reported among people who drank tea made from digitalis mistakenly identified as comfrey, although the bitter taste often deters ingestion, and its emetic properties can induce vomiting, thereby limiting systemic absorption. Digitalis poisoning is also associated with intentional ingestion with suicidal intent.

24 , 25 , 26 Digitalis glycosides accumulate and are excreted slowly; therefore, intoxications during therapy are common. The incidence of digitalis toxicity has been estimated to range from 5% to 23%. More stringent dosing guidelines and monitoring techniques have dramatically reduced the incidence of therapeutic overdose. Signs of plant or purified drug poisoning include blurred vision, contracted pupils, dizziness, excessive urination, fatigue, muscle weakness, nausea, strong but slowed pulse, tremors, and vomiting; in severe cases, stupor, confusion, convulsions, and death can occur. Cardiac signs include atrial arrhythmias and atrioventricular block. Chronic digitalis intoxication is characterized by visual halos, yellow-green vision, and GI upset. 2 , 13 , 24 , 27 In mild cases of toxicity (atrial fibrillation with a slow ventricular response or occasional ectopic beats), temporary withdrawal of the drug and electrocardiogram monitoring is sufficient.

6 Gastric lavage or emesis together with supportive measures, such as electrolyte replacements, antiarrhythmics (eg, lidocaine, phenytoin), and atropine, have been used to manage acute poisonings. Digoxin-specific Fab antibody fragments may be used in managing acute intoxications caused by digitalis and related cardioactive glycosides; however, their efficacy remains unproven by controlled clinical trials. 13 , 25 , 28 , 29 Bibliography 1. Digitalis purpurea L. USDA, NRCS. 2010. The PLANTS Database ( March 2010 ). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. 2. Morton JF. Major Medicinal Plants . Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas; 1977. 3. Warren B. Digitalis purpurea. Am J Cardiol . 2005;95(4):544. 4. Belcastro PF. Digitalis: from folklore remedy to valuable drug. J Am Pharm Assoc (Wash) .

2002;42(6):857. 5. Feussner JR, Feussner DJ. Reassessing the efficacy of digitalis: from routine treatment to evidence-based medicine. Am J Med Sci . 2010;339(5):482-484. 6. Trease GE. Trease and Evans' Pharmacognosy . 13th ed. London, UK: Balliere Tindall; 1989. 7. Kuate SP, Pádua RM, Eisenbeiss WF, Kreis W. Purification and characterization of malonyl-coenzyme A: 21-hydroxypregnane 21-O-malonyltransferase (Dp21MaT) from leaves of Digitalis purpurea L. Phytochemistry . 2008;69(3):619-626. 8. Usai M, Atzei AD, Marchetti M. Cardenolides content in wild Sardinian Digitalis purpurea L. populations. Nat Prod Res . 2007;21(9):798-804.

9. Gavidia I, Tarrío R, Rodríguez-Trelles F, Pérez-Bermúdez P, Seitz HU. Plant progesterone 5beta-reductase is not homologous to the animal enzyme. Molecular evolutionary characterization of P5betaR from Digitalis purpurea . Phytochemistry . 2007;68(6):853-864. 10. Kite GC, Porter EA, Simmonds MS. Chromatographic behaviour of steroidal saponins studied by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A . 2007;1148(2):177-183. 11. Choi DY, Lee JY, Kim MR, Woo ER, Kim YG, Kang KW. Chrysoeriol potently inhibits the induction of nitric oxide synthase by blocking AP-1 activation. J Biomed Sci . 2005;12(6):949-959. 12. Keenan SM, DeLisle RK, Welsh WJ, Paula S, Ball WJ Jr.

Elucidation of the Na+, K+-ATPase digitalis binding site. J Mol Graph Model . 2005;23(6):465-475. 13. Hauptman PJ, Kelly RA. Digitalis. Circulation . 1999;99(9):1265-1270. 14. Navarro E, Alonso PJ, Alonso SJ, et al. Cardiovascular activity of a methanolic extract of Digitalis purpurea spp. heywoodii . J Ethnopharmacol . 2000;71(3):437-442. 15. Hood, Jr. WB, Dans AL, Guyatt GH, Jaeschke R, McMurray JJ. Digitalis for treatment of congestive heart failure in patients in sinus rhythm. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2004;(2):CD002901. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD002901.pub2 . 16.

López-Lázaro M, Palma De La Peña N, Pastor N, et al. Anti-tumour activity of Digitalis purpurea L. subsp. heywoodii . Planta Med . 2003;69(8):701-704. 17. Lindholm P, Gullbo J, Claeson P, et al. Selective cytotoxicity evaluation in anticancer drug screening of fractionated plant extracts. J Biomol Screen . 2002;7(4):333-340. 18. Johansson S, Lindholm P, Gullbo J, Larsson R, Bohlin L, Cleason P. Cytotoxicity of digitoxin and related cardiac glycosides in human tumor cells. Anticancer Drugs . 2001;12(5):475-483. 19. Lee JY, Woo E, Kang KW. Screening of new chemopreventive compounds from Digitalis purpurea . Pharmazie . 2006;61(4):356-358. 20.

Ebaid GM, Faine LA, Diniz YS, et al. Effects of digitonin on hyperglycaemia and dyslipidemia induced by high-sucrose intake. Food Chem Toxicol . 2006;44(2):293-299. 21. Dec GW. Digoxin remains useful in the management of chronic heart failure. Med Clin North Am . 2003;87(2):317-337. 22. McGuffin M, Hobbs C, Upton R, Goldberg A, eds. American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook . Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 1997. 23. Tatro DS, ed. Drug Interaction Facts . St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Health Inc; 2004. 24. Jowett N. Foxglove poisoning. Hosp Med . 2002;63(12):758-759. 25. Lacassie E, Marquet P, Martin-Dupont S, Gaulier JM, Lachâtre G.

A non-fatal case of intoxication with foxglove, documented by means of liquid chromatography-electrospray-mass spectrometry. J Forensic Sci . 2000;45(5):1154-1158. 26. Lin CC, Yang CC, Phua DH, Deng JF, Lu LH. An outbreak of foxglove leaf poisoning. J Chin Med Assoc . 2010;73(2):97-100. 27. Dick M, Curwin J, Tepper D. Digitalis intoxication recognition and management. J Clin Pharmacol . 1991;31(5):444-447. 28. Wickersham RM, Novak K, managing eds. Drug Facts and Comparisons . St. Louis, MO: Facts and Comparisons; 2004. 29. Roberts DM, Buckley NA. Antidotes for acute cardenolide (cardiac glycoside) poisoning. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2006;(4):CD005490.

doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005490.pub2 . Copyright © 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health Foxglove Flower Alert, Whats Cooking America Foxglove Flower Alert Photo by Rodolfo Abraham Quinio The roots, sap, flowers, seeds, pollen, and leaves of foxglove are all poisonous – even when dried. I know because I was poisoned when I accidentally inhaled the dried seeds and pollen. My Story by Linda Stradley: Dried foxglove stem (like the one that poisoned me) Day 1: On July 29, 2006, I was cleaning up my flower beds getting ready for an outdoor gathering at our place that evening. I have several volunteer foxglove plants in my yard. The flowers were all dried up, and the plants didn’t look pretty anymore. So, I cut off the long stems where all the seed pods are. One of the stems burst or exploded (and I mean exploded) in my face. I inhaled the spores and pollen when this happened. I was amazed as I had never had any thing like this happen before.

A couple of hours later, I started breaking out with hives* on my face (see info on hives below). At first I thought some bugs had bitten me. By the end of the day, I had a rash developing over my face and neck. I didn’t know what to make of the rash, as I am a person who usually does not get pimples. * Hives, also called urticaria, are rounded or oval bumps (swellings) on the skin that often are itchy. Sometimes they are red, but they don’t have to be. Hives happen when the cells in the skin called mast cells release histamine, a chemical that causes tiny blood vessels (capillaries) to leak fluid. When this leaking fluid accumulates in the skin, it forms the small swellings that we recognize as hives. Day 2 to 5: I kept getting more break outs the next couple of days. Remembering the foxglove incident, I looked up foxgloves on the internet and found out they are poisonous. If a child eats the leaves they can die.

Also the leaves look similar to comfrey and many adults have mistaken them for comfrey and got violently ill (and even died) from eating them. I learned they can cause a hives and a swollen throat. All the articles said to take antihistamines for hives. For two days I took the non-prescription antihistamine called Clairtin for the hives, and it did stop more from coming. Day 6: As soon as the hives stopped, I then got a sore throat, and then it advanced to the ears. I thought, ok, my body will work it’s way through this. Day 9: My husband, Don, had to take me to the emergency room at 3:00 a.m. in the morning as I started spitting up blood. At the hospital, they did all kinds of tests and discovered it had advanced to pneumonia in my lungs. The doctor was amazed that this had happened to me. It turns out that I definitely have an allergy to foxgloves, and by inhaling the spores, they had poisoned my system. All because of the foxgloves!

Day 10: My husband went out in the yard and dug up all the plants he could find. More will probably come up in the spring, but they will also be dug up and destroyed. So if you have any foxgloves in your yard, destroy them – pull up the entire plant. A Modern Herbal | Foxglove ---Synonyms---Witches' Gloves. Dead Men's Bells. Fairy's Glove. Gloves of Our Lady. Bloody Fingers. Virgin's Glove. Fairy Caps. Folk's Glove. Fairy Thimbles. (Norwegian) Revbielde. (German) Fingerhut. ---Part Used---Leaves. ---Habitat---The Common Foxglove of the woods (Digitalis purpurea), perhaps the handsomest of our indigenous plants, is widely distributed throughout Europe and is common as a wild-flower in Great Britain, growing freely in woods and lanes, particularly in South Devon, ranging from Cornwall and Kent to Orkney, but not occurring in Shetland, or in some of the eastern counties of England.

It flourishes best in siliceous soil and grows well in loam, but is entirely absent from some calcareous districts, such as the chain of the Jura, and is also not found in the Swiss Alps. It occurs in Madeira and the Azores, but is, perhaps, introduced there. The genus contains only this one indigenous species, though several are found on the Continent. Needing little soil, it is found often in the crevices of granite walls, as well as in dry hilly pastures, rocky places and by roadsides. Seedling Foxgloves spring up rapidly from recently-turned earth. Turner (1548), says that it grows round rabbitholes freely. ---Description--- The normal life of a Foxglove plant is two seasons, but sometimes the roots, which are formed of numerous, long, thick fibres, persist and throw up flowers for several seasons. In the first year a rosette of leaves, but no stem, is sent up.

In the second year, one or more flowering stems are thrown up, which are from 3 to 4 feet high, though even sometimes more, and bear long spikes of drooping flowers, which bloom in the early summer, though the time of flowering differs much, according to the locality. As a rule the flowers are in perfection in July. As the blossoms on the main stem gradually fall away, smaller lateral shoots are often thrown out from its lower parts, which remain in flower after the principal stem has shed its blossoms. These are also promptly developed if by mischance the central stem sustains any serious injury. The radical leaves are often a foot or more long, contracted at the base into a long, winged footstalk, the wings formed by the lower veins running down into it some distance. They have slightly indented margins and sloping lateral veins, which are a very prominent feature. The flowering stems give off a few leaves, that gradually diminish in size from below upwards. All the leaves are covered with small, simple, unbranched hairs.

The flowers are bell-shaped and tubular, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches long, flattened above, inflated beneath, crimson outside above and paler beneath, the lower lip furnished with long hairs inside and marked with numerous dark crimson spots, each surrounded with a white border. The shade of the flowers varies much, especially under cultivation, sometimes the corollas being found perfectly white. In cultivated plants there frequently occurs a malformation, whereby one or two of the uppermost flowers become united, and form an erect, regular, cup-shaped flower, through the centre of which the upper extremity of the stem is more or less prolonged. The Foxglove is a favourite flower of the honey-bee, and is entirely developed by the visits of this insect. For that reason, its tall and stately spikes of flowers are at their best in those sunny, midsummer days when the bees are busiest.

The projecting lower lip of the corolla forms an alighting platform for the bee, and as he pushes his way up the bell, to get at the honey which lies in a ring round the seed vessel at the top of the flower, the anthers of the stamens which lie flat on the corolla above him, are rubbed against his back. Going from flower to flower up the spike, he rubs pollen thus from one blossom on to the cleft stigma of another blossom, and thus the flower is fertilized and seeds are able to be produced. The life of each flower, from the time the bud opens till the time it slips off its corolla, is about six days. An almost incredible number of seeds are produced, a single Foxglove plant providing from one to two million seeds to ensure its propagation. It is noteworthy that although the flower is such a favourite with bees and is much visited by other smaller insects, who may be seen taking refuge from cold and wet in its drooping blossoms on chilly evenings, yet no animals will browse upon the plant, perhaps instinctively recognizing its poisonous character. The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the flowers resembling the finger of a glove.

It was originally Folksglove - the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. Folksglove is one of its oldest names, and is mentioned in a list of plants in the time of Edward III. Its Norwegian name, Revbielde (Foxbell), is the only foreign one that alludes to the Fox, though there is a northern legend that bad fairies gave these blossoms to the fox that he might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled among the roosts. The earliest known form of the word is the Anglo-Saxon foxes glofa (the glove of the fox).

The mottlings of the blossoms of the Foxglove and the Cowslip, like the spots on butterfly wings and on the tails of peacocks and pheasants, were said to mark where the elves had placed their fingers, and one legend ran that the marks on the Foxglove were a warning sign of the baneful juices secreted by the plant, which in Ireland gain it the popular name of 'Dead Man's Thimbles.' In Scotland, it forms the badge of the Farquharsons, as the Thistle does of the Stuarts. The German name Fingerhut (thimble) suggested to Leonhard Fuchs (the well-known German herbalist of the sixteenth century, after whom the Fuchsia has been named) the employment of the Latin adjective Digitalis (from Digitabulum, a thimble) as a designation for the plant, which, as he remarked, up to the time when he thus named it, in 1542, had had no name in either Greek or Latin.

The Foxglove was employed by the old herbalists for various purposes in medicine, most of them wholly without reference to those valuable properties which render it useful as a remedy in the hands of modern physicians. Gerard recommends it to those 'who have fallen from high places,' and Parkinson speaks highly of the bruised herb or of its expressed juice for scrofulous swellings, when applied outwardly in the form of an ointment, and the bruised leaves for cleansing for old sores and ulcers. Dodoens (1554) prescribed it boiled in wine as an expectorant, and it seems to have been in frequent use in cases in which the practitioners of the present day would consider it highly dangerous. Culpepper says it is of: 'a gentle, cleansing nature and withal very friendly to nature. The Herb is familiarly and frequently used by the Italians to heal any fresh or green wound, the leaves being but bruised and bound thereon and the juice thereof is also used in old sores, to cleanse, dry and heal them.

It has been found by experience to be available for the King's evil, the herb bruised and applied, or an ointment made with the juice thereof, and so used.... I am confident that an ointment of it is one of the best remedies for a scabby head that is.' Strangely enough, the Foxglove, so handsome and striking in our landscape, is not mentioned by Shakespeare, or by any of the old English poets. The earliest known descriptions of it are those given about the middle of the sixteenth century by Fuchs and Tragus in their Herbals. According to an old manuscript, the Welsh physicians of the thirteenth century appear to have frequently made use of it in the preparation of external medicines. Gerard and Parkinson advocate its use for a number of complaints, and later Salmon, in the New London Dispensatory, praised the plant. It was introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia in 1650, though it did not come into frequent use until a century later, and was first brought prominently under the notice of the medical profession by Dr. W.

Withering, who in his Acount of the Foxglove, 1785, gave details of upwards of 200 cases, chiefly dropsical, in which it was used. A domestic use of the Foxglove was general throughout North Wales at one time, when the leaves were used to darken the lines engraved on the stone floors which were fashionable then. This gave them a mosaiclike appearance. The plant is both cultivated and collected in quantities for commercial purposes in the Harz Mountains and the Thuringian Forest.

Question: The plant 'Digitalis' is better known as what?
Answer: Foxglove